The Fairy Tale World

~~~ Acts of the Apostles 20:17-27 ~~~ Psalm 68 ~~~  John 17:1-11A ~~~

Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God...

Jesus goes on with his prayer to the Father...
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.

The message here is for us to also glorify God
 in the work that we do while on earth.

We too have a role given to us by God for our time here.
There may be more than one path to glorify God,
but each must be for this same purpose.
If what you are doing with your life
does not glorify God do something different.

All that we do must be for the glory of God.

Imagine for a minute what a different world this would be
 if each person acted in a manner to glorify the Lord.
Of course this is a fairy tale world from a Disney movie.
But you can join others who have made the choice
to make their life about glorifying God.

I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.

Jesus singles us out of the world in his prayers.
While we pray for the world Jesus is praying for us.
This is how we can believe that it is possible
 to glorify God while we are here on earth.

We do not have to wait until we get to heaven to give God glory.
It must be with every beat of our heart the God is glorified.

Jesus taught us how to glorify the Father...
he gave us all that the Father had given to him.
We have within all that we need;
if only more people would bump
 it to the top of their consciousness.

Glorify God with your whole being
and you will be abundantly blessed.

It is His peace we seek.
Let us give glory to God on the highest.

Love Makes the World Go 'Round

~~~ Acts 6: 1-10 ~~~ Psalm 100 ~~~ John 15: 18-21 ~~~

Throughout the days and weeks between Easter and Pentecost the church nourishes our faith; providing numerous accounts of how the number of believers grew.

"Day after day the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number."

We are also given the history of our own path to Christianity. If the early believers had not been open to the urgings of the Holy Spirit we might not be Christians.

It is good that we hear these stories each year as our faith is built upon the faith of all those who have gone before us.

Psalm 100 says,

"Know that the Lord is God; he made us, his we are;

his people the flock he tends."

God has been with us and looking after our well being throughout all of the ages. We were always a part of the divine plan. God uses his people to accomplish his works on earth now just as he did in the early church.

Less we forget; we do not belong to the world...we belong to God. We are only here for a short time. Our home is in heaven with God. We belong to him and he will call each of us home when the time comes.

Jesus says, "I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you."

 The world is wrought with evil and filled with temptation. Daily we are faced with the opportunity to confess that we do not belong to this world. This world cannot bring us true peace or joy because those only exist in their pure form in heaven.

In this world we settle for what we know as peace and joy, even though this satisfaction falls short of what is in store for us in heaven.

Because God loves us he has granted us bits of consolation in this world through those who love us. We too have been commissioned to extend this same measure of consolation through loving others.

The greatest commandment is to love.

Love makes the world go 'round.

In 1965 Burt Bacharach  composed a song titled, "What the World Needs Now; one of the lines says 'love is the only thing the world needs more of'. I think intuitively many know that love is the only thing that makes this world inhabitable.

So today as I celebrate my fortieth anniversary with my husband, I stand to give testimony to the power of love. With love it is possible to make marriage commitment until death parts us.

I am happy to have the love of my husband and my family.

Look around you today for the signs of love this world can provide.

Perhaps it is the softness of a baby's cheek.